Whew

I've been waiting for this ever since road nationals. What if that poppy seed muffin I ate 3 years ago is still in my system? What if dairyDog's steroids somehow crept into my system? What if I breathed some of that inhaler that my sister used to use back in high school (14 years ago)? What if I am really a man? What if I have a chimeric twin?

Mountain State Road Classic

WV State Champs

YAHOO! That gunnar is one sneaky boy. As he said, the strongest man does not always win the race.


Here is our secret weapon for cross season, aka as F*cker Man.













Team Bi-Atch/Casorph Piano official podium wear.













It takes special talent to endo while going uphill.

24

Is taking all our time.
Attention.
Thought.
Life.

We eat, sleep, think, just like our comrades at CTU.
It's awful.
But we can't walk away now, we're in too deep.

---------------
sent from somewhere inside the Compound, room #3.
Secure port:3285

Cross starts when?

You can see Betsy's old and new frames/bikes.
But can you find mine?
They're buried.
Behind the box, behind our borrowed award-tandem.

I don't think I'm ready for Cross just yet.
But *my* legs don't hurt when I run...

Tales From the Bog

That's what the story is in this month's National Geographic.
And when I saw it I thought of Canaan Valley, WV.



The magazine and web article are talking about the bodies and what-not that are being found in some Irish Peat Bogs from way back when.
The bogs I'm thinking about are a bit closer to home and not so way back, and though there may be some bodies left over from the spectators during the last few Blackwater 100s, mostly the bogs contain some really interesting riding and probably more then a few pair of cycling shoes.

Besides the Moon Rocks and Plantation Trail, the Bogs are probably the most memorable feature of doing any riding or racing in the Canann Valley region.
Lots of stories about folks thinking they had the good line only to see someone else 30 yards away riding the bike while they themselves get "bogged" down. Yet again.
Or racing at the Original 24 Hours of Canaan, *seeing* the lights out there, wondering if they or you have the better line, and waiting to see who's lights go arching across the sky right as the rider falls knee deep into the bog.

The Bogs sure are a mean kind of fun.

More Tails

iPlayOutside's story -
Black Bear Fiction

"Never looked back." Wrong. Denied.
I saw Steve on the long gravel climb.
I saw Steve on the last hike-a-bike and he saw me. He said "oh, no, not this time Gunnar." (in his thick Steve Heel accent) To his credit, though he was starting to cramp and such what not, he had the presence of mind to stop at the last feed station and get some food in him, then of course he really knew that last decent well, and I just went ass-over-tin-cups once, couldn't make one of the switchback at all, but was trying really hard to reel him in.
We had a good race.

And poor Betsy.
Had to race in Bean boots. :(
And flatted, and fell down a crevace. :(
And had that blotted wrist from those evil bees. :(

Well Betsy is at least pleased that her only mishap was at a race that wasn't particularly important.
All my mishaps happen at the more important ones -
* Greenbriar AMBC
* Stoopid 50 (not leading, but dern close)
* WV State MTB Championships
* NORBA National Championships
And at every one, I was leading when calamity struck.
Poopie pants.

Home finally and greeted by the Chris's feral cats

What we had to look forward to the next morning

Tails from the Black Bear, coming soon

But first, Big Foot in Kanawha State Forest? -
Puzzling Evidence

You saw it here first!

Trail Maintenance Kicks Butt!

And it really kicked ours too.

Regardless of how the points get added on or added to, Betsy and I are trying to do our part.

This year the WVMBA Series is trying out the Pay Dirt Program where by doing hours of certified Trail help and what-not will get you points toward your overall standings in the series.
So we got in contact w/ Mark Schooley at Big Bear Lake and arranged for a Trail Day.

As it turned out, it was just the three of us at first, then lot owner and fellow MTBer, Keith, showed up to help out too.
We worked from 10am to 3pm, and what took us all that time to mark, negotiate, and clear, we rode in about 10 minutes. That's how trail work goes sometimes, but when you piece a bunch of work together over a few weeks you've got some real trails to ride.
But the day was not w/o mishap and incident, as we stumbled (quite literally) a den of ground bees that swarmed and tried to make life more miserable than we already were. I got stung three or four time, Betsy got stung four times, Keith and Mark were spared. My tough skin proved usefull as all I got were some itchys, where as the tender-skinned Betsy swelled up, got dizzy, and generally had a bad time from that point until the next day.
I also lost my nice foldable Gerber saw. Poopie pants.

After working for 5 hours we decided to go on a "one" hour ride. Mark wanted to show us the new trail by the pines too, "shouldn't take too long".
2:45 hours later we were all back. No flats, just a longer ride, a misplaced rider, but some really nice riding on a really nice day.

But it crushed us but good!
We got home, barely, tried to walk dD around some, then came home, maybe ate some, and took a nap, then woke, tried to get things ready for the race the next day, and fell back to sleep. We were wrecked.
I also forgot to put Betsy's race shoes in the bus.
And of course that lead to a frustrating time the next day...

Betsy's normally thin wrist looking not so happy.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Click Link:

Bunny @ Black Bear

Getting Tired

Wilderness101, Addendum

CyclingNews W101 Report and Results

Look for your favorite Team Bi-atch/Casdorph Piano player in the full results, we all finished! -
* Betsy "crush them Torg, do as I say"
* gunnar "more walking would have helped"
* Mike "when should I stop?" Yozell
* Chris "3 gears is plenty" McGill

And don't forget the WV Nite Club Posse -
* Benji "argg I need a heavier gear" Klimas
* Jon-jon "ahh, you just need to shift it" Martin
* Chris "I carried three tubes and didn't need any of them?" Phillips
Thanks for Caution Taping the bus guys...

Wilderness101, Part I

Some of us faired better during the W101 than others.... I've never seen eyes roll back into someone's head like that before. Erica, I hope you are not reading this.

My flatting technique is unstoppable

Well the first cross racing w/e is done and over with. And if this one is any indicator, it will be a long season indeed. I'd better get used to bike changes and changing tyres.

Good thing I got my single-speed in the pits. But I'd probably do a bit better if my other cross bike was there too. Yeah, I'll get right on that.

Quick recap-
Maggie-Moo's Barnyard Dash- Very hard ground, very bumpy, very fast, very slick gravel corners, two bales of hay to hurdle over. My race is on, then I'm on the saddle doing a superman after the haybales, so I'm off, then I'm back on, then a complete flat with about 2/3 of the lap to go. I think it had been going soft for a while. Get third behind my buddy from Alan whose name is Jed Snyder, and Phil Noble. It was good, I got lots of organic fruits after the race, got to see some old OH folks that I hadn't seen in over 10 years.

United Dairy Farmers UCI- Lots more people. More diversity in the course. Down right dusty in sections. Not really easy picking for UCI points, but not hopeless either. Betsy and I share one jersey.
Race is on and I'm off, but just for a moment, move up to the mid single
digits, then flat with 1/3 lap to go on the first lap. Grab the single-speed and off I'm going. Glad I have it, but boy is that front tyre sketchy. And the angles are great for my training, but a bit much for full on UCI racing.
And it's only got one gear!
So I fade to 17th I'm told, grab the fixed other bike and start my march back up
to somewhere. Each lap I grab another, until I'm up to 11th. The
little group of 8-9-10 is up a bit farther and I have three laps left.
Haven't been able to do the 20-20-20 thing, as it's been all out run down folks as I go. Making up ground, but my time is running out.
Close to the last lap and I start fading and making mistakes, and this is not the course to be making mistakes, lots of corners to keep one honest. Guy passes me back so now I'm in 12th again. Betsy shows her encouragement "Come on gunnar, you can get him!" to which I reply "He just got me." Opps. So that's where I end up. $63 for the effort, dusty everything, lots of Red Bull to load up on, more strange followers, and another dead tyre.

Betsy's race is better, cracking the legs of the womyn behind her, but a loose cleat keeps her from challenging the MI grrl for the win. Least she didn't flat, and she's didn't sweat too much or crash, so the jersey is in decent shape for my stint.

The bikes will be easy to clean, but the others still need to be put together.

Also get to check all my cross tyres. And boy do I have a few!
Thumbs will now be sore for a couple days to come.

off, on, off, on, ...?

Did your folks every bark at you for turning the light switch off and on, repeatedly?
Well that's what was going on yesterday. Only there wasn't no folks here.
My race is on!This is going to be great, everything's clicking, filing technique is working out awesome, so serious butt-kicking will be in order soon.

Oh crap.That didn't work out so hot (insert Sad Bazook noise). I got cables strewn all other this place, what a mess.
This road shoe to cross-killing-shoe conversion is going to be better than anyone else was able to do for the last 14 years!
My new modding techinique is definitely unstoppable now.
Well now I can see that it's going to need loads more fiddling and lots more spares.
I need more old crap!!Then I will be ready.

Holy crap, it's cold out. My feet are getting numb all ready, this isn't how it's supposed to be, I don't feel like doing much now, sniff, sniff.

And so on, ad nauseum.

___
Sent with fiendFoneVI

Convert lines crap.

So I had to change a setting so's I could more efficiently and properly have the hard and soft line-breaks converted from the email client to blog.
Just like that.
Gotta go back to filing, watching the spider that lives in the shell, and running after dairyDog.

My day couldn't be much better, it's the w/e and Betsy's coming down
soon
___
Sent with fiendFoneVI

My Filing Technique Sucks.

Alphabetical and by part-type are just not cutting it.
Whoever came up with that idea owes me the last day and a half of my life...
Until I come up with a new scheme the part, pieces, and boxes are just going to have to hang out on the basement floor and on top of old dead Clyde's dog house.

Once the proper filing technique is implemented winning can be certainly assured. There can be no doubt about this, it is fact.

Late last night my race was not feeling even close to being on, in fact it felt as if it was completely off.
But with renewed enthusiasm and mindful of the certainity to which a new filing technique will most certainly make, I feel my cross-killing-season is about to commence.
Let loose the onslaught!
___
Sent with fiendFoneVI

Fergie's got too much race on.

And you didn't think it was possible.
Talked to the blockhead last night, he's either racing to beat all bejesus, or shipping out and recieving crates of gardening tools. He says his hoes are the sharpest!

But his knee is aching from no easy-living rides. Look for the smoke coming out of his ears at a race near you...

So the UCI has plans to change the face of Mountain Bike racing.
Ferg tells me that they are going to allow support and assistance for next years races.
So now there will be mechanics and pit people racing up and down the hills on little mini-bikes or SUV's, just because they can.
We'll just have to see how this floats over here in the States, cause we invented the darn things you know!
I for one, have no problem with riders helping out each other, be they teammates or not-
* At the 1992 24 Hours of Canaan, a young Kevin Simmons gave me a pump at the base of Brown's Mtn at 3am. Had he not, his team would have won and we would have not. But it's what we did back then, or down there, or something.
* In 1991/2/3 or somewhere there abouts, at Park City UT, Joey Irwin gave his teammate John Tomac his wheel after John flatted or broke yet another of those king-crappy Tioga disk wheels. I took note of this as I rode passed them switching everything, young Joey was supposed to be
the next Johnny T. but I think he was too hairy. Later in the day both were disqualified.
* In 1989/90 or sometime, Jan Wiejak was coming in for the win, at the National Champs in Mt. Snow VT, but he did a bike swap right before the finish line (to look good for his sponsors) and was DQed.
So how knows?

I know I'll huck my bike on someone if they get in my way!

Fergie also says that no one cares about the Mountain bike scene at the national and above level.
The publications are only listing 5 places for the races, which means that the same five mutants get all the press and everyone else is chewing on shoelaces trying to get money together for the next race.

But that doesn't matter cause Cross season is upon us and we mere mortals get transformed into Cross-Killing-racing-machines for the rest of the community to worship!
Then it's back to the day joerb.

"I'm tough as dirt, I'm mean as blood.
Where I blow out comes spiders, where I step a weed dies.
No smokes with diapers for Pete, King of All Detectives
Fall down on your knees, fall down and worship King Dick."

and what 'cha gonna do about it R y an?

My New Racing Technique is Nearly Unstoppable!

gunnar.
fiendracer.
dog.

training?

Training is for those that don't race enough.

Those that train often and with too much attention to detail will soon witness the power of my nearly unstoppable racing technique!
They will go home with their hands down to the knees.
Such is the power!

Time to move y'all!

Especially me.

Spending all night fiddling w/ computers when I should be tightening spikes and sharpening pedals.

Now out of my way, and check out my backside!